Newbie Questions: Genesis

mackin · Newbie Alert Joined: 22 Jul 2008 Posts: 1

My Grandparents were very religious, but my knowledge of the Bible only comes from reading the Bible at Sunday dinner when I was with them. Not much of it really sank in as I was young and mostly wanted to get up and go outside and play. My interest now is more scholarly I would say and I've picked up the NKJV version and have started reading. I imagine I will have more questions, but of course the obvious place to start is Genesis. This is more of questions post than a debate post, so mods if there is somewhere else this should be please feel free to move.

1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was[a] on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

Q: What does "without form" mean in this context? Shapeless? Non-spherical? Flat?

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; 15 and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth”; and it was so. 16 Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. 17 God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Okay, so on day one God creates light and divides it to make night and day and then on day three he makes, what I assuming are, the sun and the moon "Then God made two great lights...".

Q: What was the light that was created on the first day since the sun "the greater light" was not created until day three? And why, on day three, does God even set lights in the firmament if light was already created?

Was it some sourceless celestial light? Evening and morning are referenced in this passage, so there was a cycle of day to night. A day to night that proceeds the creation of the Sun and the moon. A sourced light would always leave half of a spherical object in darkness (night) therefore night would not be created so to speak but would be a function of the placement of the source. Only an omnidirectional light would have the ability to create day (by being on) and night (by being off).

Q: What is the other great light?

I assume it's talking about the moon, but, well, yeah...It's not a light it reflects light. How is this usually explained?

Yikes, this is getting long so I'll stop here. Thanks in advance to anyone who has thoughts on this.

eleven · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 10:39 am Post subject:

1) Yes
2) The glory of God Himself
3) Probably

On to Exodus............
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macca · Newbie Alert Joined: 28 Jul 2008 Posts: 2

an attempt at answering your questions. mackin
I feel without form refers to the land mass not being in any recognizable form.
It was not until after the devastation of the flood that the land shapes we know were formed.
The light is a little more difficult.
the fact that light was created does not mean that it was visible; there was no-one but God to see it, and He does not need light to see!
but as you will see further on in the creation description, other things were created, but not evident!
Yes, the lesser light is the moon, it does reflect light, but does shine a weaker light on the earth!

Plotinus · Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 5:38 am Post subject: Re: Newbie Questions: Genesis